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AOI does not export STEP or IGS. You can see the list of file formats in the Export submenu of the File menu. It starts with only a few, you could get the rest from the Art of Illusion Scripts and Plugins repository at:
[aoisp.sourceforge.net]

from that wikipedia page the AOI 3D Export list is the following:
.pov, .obj, VRML, all native; .stl via plugin

also, AOI exports in XML format the Constructive Solid Geometry of all the objects in the scene.

Jon,

Stretch is a script to stretch the threads to partially compensate for filament shrinkage when extruded. You could try going to Stretch and selecting "Activate Stretch" to turn stretch on. The default is now off, because stretch adds line segments and so because of the segment pausing problem, extra plastic would be deposited. You could play around with "Perimeter Maximum Stretch Over Extrusion Width" and hope for the best. The values for the stretch parameters are currently all guesses because I don't have a report of anyone extruding anything with stretch.

I,ve done some more testing with support another feature that would help with removal would be if the support didn't touch the sides of the object as it's building. At present if you do a tall section the support will build next to it but just touching, while the support is at a lowertemp the actual model is at a higher temp and sticks to the support quite well making it difficult to remove.

I've also had the support on top of dome sections but it is very easy to remove so not really a problem just a small bug.

The obj plugin has been added to the import_plugins folder, so now obj files can be read directly. The ability to set a different feedrate for the extruder when it is off and the "Bridge Feedrate Multiplier" have been added to speed. The ability to set a different feedrate when extruding support material has been added to raft. The ability to make accordion rectangular grids has been added to fill. Accordion grids will have a slightly higher shear strength, but might have other problems.

The Support Minimum Angle bug in raft has been fixed. The "Support Inset over Perimeter Width" ratio in raft has been renamed "Support Gap over Perimeter Width", the sign of the value has been reversed and the default is now 0.3. A crash bug in cool has been fixed. A bug where the Save Preferences" button on Macs was sometimes not draw may have been fixed. Although not a part of skeinforge itself, the Gearweaver script in the "Art of Illusion Scripts" folder now makes correct triangle meshes of the gear.

I ran a -2.0 now 2.0 "Support Inset over Perimeter Width" last night and it worked very well with a very clear gap this made removing the support easy I will try a 1.0 and see how it goes. The different feed rate will be really cool I'll try that also

I think I may have found a bug in "Fill" if I set the Extra Shells on Base (layers): to anything except 0 it comes up with a division by zero: float error. But (there's always a but!) it only does this on complex shape files and on STL files that I have to run with Unproven mesh selected in "Carve"

All the STL's I've drawn even complex ones don't appear to have this problem, I don't know what CAD software produced the files I have trouble with as they were sent to me for testing.

I have been working for a while on an improved slicer that works with skeinforge.

Solidworks exports horrible STL, and coupled with the fact that STL is horrible already, meant that I was having issues getting objects ready for reprapping. STEP is much more capable, far more efficient and more accurate format. I wanted to be able to use STEP to store objects, and slice them directly from that format.

The attached script can slice STL or STEP files quickly, and output a 'slice file'-- svg formatted file, which can be passed into the skeinforge suite. It applies some fix-ups to STL meshes, which for me meant that STL can also be sliced much more reliably, and faster than with skeinforge.

The script uses pythonocc, a python binding to the OpenCascade modelling kernel. As such, it has the disadvantage that you first need to install pyhonOCC, but the advantage that it is very fast and very powerful for the length of the script.

To run the script, first install pythonOCC. I used the pre-created windows version here:
[www.pythonocc.org]

You need python 2.5 or better, OCC version 6.3, and pythonCC version wo0.2

then, run the script, like this:

python OccSliceLib.py myobject.stl

a file called myobject_sliced.svg will be created in the same folder, which you can then fill and such with skeinforge. This slice format is also directly viewable with an svg viewer. If you use firefox, you can scale and scroll through the layers as well.

The script will also launch an interactive 3d viewer that shows the original object and the slices. You can make the tool slice faster if you disable the display of the slices however.

To include a python library (wxViewer3d) you need to put it in the python library directory - or if you have problems with that, you can put it in the same directory as your script and it should find it.

Personally to help the growth of the this project I would Make it so that it just works, This program could be very beneficial to people like myself who like to use non free software IE Autodesk Inventor.

Either way a well written install guide would work just fine, include a list of all software, programs, etc in your zip that you have with all of there version numbers that you are currently using. just my .02

Also I was looking at the slice thickness, is there a way to change that parameter, or is 2mm the best thickness?

There is no way to remove the initialization code. However, instead of using start.txt, you can use an "EndOfTheBeginning.txt" file, which will be incorporated after the initialization and so can override whatever you want. To see how the initialization is set up, you can look at the addInitializationToOutput function in inset.py, which is reprinted below.

When looking for start files, skeinforge ignores capitalization, so "EndOfTheBeginning.txt" and "endofthebeginning.txt" will both work. Similarly, "Start.txt" and "start.txt" will also both work.